It's hard to believe, but Terrence Malick essentially has three movies on the way, something we never thought we'd type. There is his "Voyage Of Time" documentary that has Brad Pitt and Emma Thompson signed up to narrate; that mystery Christian Bale project that popped up filming at the Austin City Limits music festival last month (more on that in a moment) and the already wrapped, and still untitled drama with Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz, Olga Kurylenko, Javier Bardem, Barry Pepper, Charles Baker and in a small role, Jessica Chastain. Of the trio of pictures, this one seems to be the one closest to the finish line and it look like Malick is now getting the music together for movie.

It's hard to believe, but Terrence Malick essentially has three movies on the way, something we never thought we'd type. There is his "Voyage Of Time" documentary that has Brad Pitt and Emma Thompsonsigned up to narrate; that mystery Christian Bale project that popped up filming at the Austin City Limits music festival last month (more on that in a moment) and the already wrapped, and still untitled drama with Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz, Olga Kurylenko, Javier Bardem, Barry Pepper, Charles Baker and in a small role, Jessica Chastain. Of the trio of pictures, this one seems to be the one closest to the finish line and it look like Malick is now getting the music together for movie.

While he's worked with composers in the past like Alexandre Desplat, Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone and contentiously, James Horner, it appears he's taking a different tack this time around. Malick-obsessive blog All Things Shining are reporting that American Indian classical composer Jerod Tate is recording an orchestral soundtrack to the film.

Apparently, in order to make use of a 2% tax rebate in Oklahoma, Malick and his team have been sourcing music from artists throughout the state and Tate was settled on to write the music. Seems a bit odd that Malick -- whose had no problem sending camera crews around the world to get the footage he wants -- would restrict himself on this element of the production, but considering the budget on this is likely tiny, any savings can help. Of course, whether or not he winds up actually using Tate's music is another matter altogether -- Malick can be selective to put it lightly -- so we'll see how this pans out. Last we heard, Malick himself said he was "rushing" towards a final mix on the film (a word we never thought we'd hear him use) and Optimum in the U.K. had picked up the movie over the summer for a 2012 release, so fingers crossed that sticks.

And oh yeah, that Christian Bale movie with Haley Bennett. Since that footage popped up last month of Malick and his team on the grounds of ACL shooting, we've gotten an interesting update. We've been told by folks very close to the production that the filming was actually pre-production work, and that Bale was on hand working out and finding his character. The actor went method for much of his time on the grounds, interacting with with some of the artists backstage apologizing in advance for any rudeness by saying his character in the movie is kind of an "asshole." No word of if any of that footage will make it into the movie (we kind of doubt it), but it's a snippet of info that we'll take for now.